【Sydney Food】Paramount Coffee Project

September 28, 2014

I visited Paramount Coffee Project earlier in the year at the urge of my bestie, L. I distinctly remember how I was impressed by the decor; the tokyobike shop at the back; the food choices and my dilemma in deciding what to order, because everything looked so good on the menu. However, for some reason, the taste of the food itself didn’t make a big impression on me.

—–HER{curio}MAJESTY SCORE SHEET—–

Visited: 2 March 2014.

Food: 7/10 || Ambiance: 7/10 || Service: 7/10

What I loved: The creative menu and the decor.

What I didn’t: The correlation between the price and the serving size.

Will I come back: Probably not.

The cafe’s rather spacious with pram space and moving space. However, there’s always a big queue, so be prepared to wait around.

Interestingly, there’s a bike shop at the back of the cafe, called tokyobike. They sell bicycles and other biking related accessories. They also have bicycles available for hire, so you could still ride on these sleek and beautiful bikes even if you don’t have the money to spare.

The items at the shops were all very nice to look at, so it was good to have it there to kill some time while we waited for a table.

Mike ordered a filtered coffee, $5. It came in a really nice set of ceramic planter-like cups.

Crab Po Boy: soft shell crab, house slaw, milk bun, $19. The presence of soft shell crab was lacking a little, but the batter was decent.

We also added a side of onion rings, $5. We waited forever for it to come, to a point it became apparent that they had given our onion rings to the table next to us. We weren’t too fussed because they were busy and these things happen. We chased it up and we finally received it…

Are you for real? Onion rings, $5….

Chicken in a bag: fried chicken & watermelon, $16. As usual, Mike let me order for him, because I always want to try everything on the menu, and Mike never really minds anything. However, when this dish was served, Mike told us “If this dish was served in the US, a lot of people would get offended and call this racist.” So I looked it up, here’s a related article on why: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/black-history-month-school-menu_n_4740723.html

To be honest, if Mike didn’t mention it to me (he’s into US talk shows), I wouldn’t have associated this dish with the African American stereotype because it does not have a strong tie to our culture. However, I wonder whether the owners (after all, the place has been known for serving “American-inspired food”) knew about the history when they created this dish?

Anyway, it’s not a dish that I would order again in any event because there were only 5 pieces of pretty ordinary fried chicken and 3 slices of watermelon….